The marine collection comes from the Levantine basin (eastern Mediterranean Sea), particularly from Lebanese coastal waters. The collection is unique in the Arab world and dates back to the 1950’s. The fish collection includes about 240 species and over 6,500 specimens. Most of this collection is from Lebanese coastal waters but there are several samples from the coasts of neighboring Cyprus, Greece and Turkey. This collection is currently being updated with 25 newly introduced fish species to the eastern Mediterranean (Bariche collection) expanded especially in relation to Lessepsian species (i.e. those immigrating from the Red Sea).
The marine collection urgently needs re-identification and taxonomic updates of species, change of jars and preservatives, re-organization according to modern classification, making DNA fin-sample collection and digitalization and computerization.